Pretentious, or Not?

[Blade Runner]

Those are awfully pretentious postcards, Jeen.

 

Fred

I enjoyed them all. Thanks for sending them Fred.

[girlieg33k]

Those are awfully pretentious postcards, Jeen.

Those postcards look awfully familiar, Fred.

 

I hope your MB 146G feels dirty now.

[wspohn]

BTW - here is a pen that might get ME labelled as a BP (bleep) - but I still like it, not just because it is a pair with my sterling FP, but for the quite vintage style of it!

 

This is a red one because I couldn't find a pic of the sterling.

 

http://www.vintagepens.com.au/13392.jpg

[Blade Runner]

Those are awfully pretentious postcards, Jeen.

Those postcards look awfully familiar, Fred.

 

I hope your MB 146G feels dirty now.

girlieg, you mean he's two timin' us? :hmm1:

[girlieg33k]

I think Fred's quite smitten with his 146G. Wild dogs couldn't pry it from his fingers. Oh, the postcards? Nope, I get the different variety that makes the mailman think I'm a Hare Krishna.

[LedZepGirl]

It all depends on who's using them and what there reason for doing it is. If something has a fountain pen as a 'status symbol' and uses just so they can flaunt their wealth/importance then they are pretentious, especially if they don't care about whether it writes nice or not. But then again it's not cool to throw around labels such as 'pretentious' because it makes you sound stupid. It seems these days that people have an obsession with labeling things as pretentious. If anything they are the ones who are being pretentious because they can't discern that there is more to a person than what meets the eye. I think some of it comes from jealously of not being that person or being able to do what they can. It upsets those people so much that they have to start throwing labels around to make up for it.

 

That's my thoughts on the issue. Call me pretentious if you want, I don't care. I have some reasoning here.

[Silvermink]

I figured it was only a matter of time before BMWs came up.

[wrath186]

I'm a firm believer that objects don't make people pretentious, it's the actions of said user of those objects that makes them pretentious. I walk around with pens more expensive than a Montblanc a lot of the time, people that feel the need to judge me by that and not what I actually do are people I nave no interest in knowing.

 

Regards,

 

Tom

 

I agree.

 

[wspohn]

I figured it was only a matter of time before BMWs came up.

 

I'm OK - I have never owned a German car, and I don't mind my friends that do. I don't find that many of them pretend that owning a BMW means something it is not. But then as I drive to work, 2 out of every 5 cars seems to be a BMW where I live. Maybe they have a different connotation and attract a different owner group elsewhere.

 

I think that if you want to choose a car where the possibility of (bleep) ownership is highest, it would be Viper, Hummer, and Corvette.

 

Just like with pens, when you see a certain kind of car in the hands of a certain kind of person, your antennae go up and you look for further evidence one way or the other.

 

See a new Corvette driven by a middle aged gentleman and you figure - either (bleep) or enthusiast. Then you see the gold neck chains and it pushes you toward one conclusion and away from the other.....sort of like seeing someone with fancy MB BP....and then they pull out a nice black 149 and start taking notes and you breath a sigh and recognize a fellow traveller.

[I am not a number]

See a new Corvette driven by a middle aged gentleman and you figure - either (bleep) or enthusiast. Then you see the gold neck chains and it pushes you toward one conclusion and away from the other.....sort of like seeing someone with fancy MB BP....and then they pull out a nice black 149 and start taking notes and you breath a sigh and recognize a fellow traveller.

I'm a believer in the principle that there is an appropriate time to just stop digging holes.

[Garageboy]

I have a problem when people tell me "hey nice pen" as I cant tell whether they're being sarcastic or serious or how to respond. If it's legit, I'll just acknowledge thanks and shrug it off

[ilovemyducatis]

 

QUOTE (wspohn @ Apr 8 2009, 10:00 PM) *

See a new Corvette driven by a middle aged gentleman and you figure - either (bleep) or enthusiast. Then you see the gold neck chains and it pushes you toward one conclusion and away from the other.....sort of like seeing someone with fancy MB BP....and then they pull out a nice black 149 and start taking notes and you breath a sigh and recognize a fellow traveller.

 

Are my MBs offset by the fact that I get them out of a motorcycle bag and I have dirty motorbike boots? :roflmho: Let's hope so!

[wspohn]

Are my MBs offset by the fact that I get them out of a motorcycle bag and I have dirty motorbike boots? :roflmho: Let's hope so!

 

I'd give anyone with a Ducati a pass - I used to own a vintage 350 (not desmo, sadly).

[wspohn]

I'm a believer in the principle that there is an appropriate time to just stop digging holes.

 

So you are saying that when you meet someone for the first time, you pay no attention to what they are wearing, carrying, driving or saying? Must make getting to know them a real challenge.....

[Blade Runner]

Do you see the irony of claiming that some people -"dorks, jerks, twits" as you call them - buy things only for show, yet you are the one who holds so much value in appraising someone's character by their possessions?

[wspohn]

Do you see the irony of claiming that some people -"dorks, jerks, twits" as you call them - buy things only for show, yet you are the one who holds so much value in appraising someone's character by their possessions?

 

Nope.

 

Maybe it would help if I explained.

 

I am a lawyer. My job is to get client's what they want, whether it is negotiating a favourable contract, getting an authority (tax, police, municipal) to agree to things, or to generally smooth the way for whatever goal the file requires.

 

In order to be good at this, you have to be able to handle people. In order to do that, you have to have the ability to quickly asses them so you know what their qualities, needs, wants, sore spots etc. might be. And you need to do that quickly, based on whatever limited contact and converstaion you can arrange.

 

The way to do this is to be very observant and to pick up on clues. This includes things like what clothes they are wearing, what cars they drive, what accessories (pens, glasses, jewellery) they are wearing, and how they speak, as well as what they say.

 

You can't prejudge people - and that is what some here seem to assume that I do, in their responses. I'd be a poor advocate if I jumped to incorrect conclusions.

 

You do have to form a series of quickly formulated (and often as quickly abandoned) positions, and proceed on that basis, changing your assessment sometimes with every sentence, depending on what you and the other person say.

 

So when I say that in my experience, people that own and use high end pens have a higher probability of being flaky (call it what you will) it is because that is what I have observed. And when I say that the chance of a high end BP correlating with this is higher than a high end FP, that is why I come to that assessmment (even if only temporarily.

 

I see that many of you are uncomfortable with the idea of someone 'judging' other people. Well best that you get pver that, because the whole world is doing that all day long, it is just that some of us are better at it than others.

 

Most people wouldn't even notice if you had a pen in your hand, much less what kind it was. A pen fan would more lkiely notice, and anyone trained in my sort of work, would not only notice but would put the information to use. That's the way almost all lawyers think, and many other people as well.

 

So yes, jeen, I do pay a lot of attention to what people wear, say, and do, and that is why, if it makes any difference. I'd be much less effective at my job if I didn't.

[Blade Runner]

I judge people by their actions and track record. What they wear, carry or drive are comparatively meaningless to me.

[WendyNC]

wspohn, now that I know for sure that you're a transactions attorney, I understand completely where you're coming from. As a paralegal assisting attorneys in transaction practices, taking in every bit of information I can about folks and applying that information against the database in my head is part of what I'm paid to do. Every interaction adds to that database and modifies it.

 

I suspect, but do not know, that within the subset of people with whom we deal, a ballpoint version of a high-end fountain pen may be slightly more likely to be a pretension than it would be in the population as a whole. Just as we rapidly have to form and modify our impressions, we know that those with whom we are interacting while we do our business will be forming and modifying their impressions of us. I know I often select my clothing and accouterments based on whatever information I have about the people with whom I will be dealing that day and the information I wish to signal, but I'm not sure everyone does that as consciously or at least with such a precise consideration of every detail as I sometimes do.

Edited April 9, 2009 by WendyNC

[girlieg33k]

Depending on the circumstances, if I observe someone whipping out a pen, my first thoughts are not about the pen; I'd probably wonder what they were writing and why. But that's me, and it has nothing to do with being either a pen fan or being a lawyer -- both of which, I am.

 

Being analytical (either by nature or training) is not the same as being judgmental. Being observant is not the same as being censorious of petty details. Anyone can decipher details, but in doing so, the point is to distinguish fact from mere speculation.

 

[wspohn]

I know I often select my clothing and accouterments based on whatever information I have about the people with whom I will be dealing that day and the information I wish to signal, but I'm not sure everyone does that as consciously or at least with such a precise consideration of every detail as I sometimes do.

 

Hi - nice to meet someone that knows what I am talking about. :clap1:

 

And yes, I sometimes do alter clothing and car to suit circumstances. There are times where you want the people you meet to see you as a well dressed attorney. There are other times when you want them to underestimate you - that is a jeans and old car day...